Wrestlers at Rialto’s Carter High practiced in a small room with a single window, with 20-some teenagers piling in. For hours, they competed against each other, pushing and pulling to try and gain position.

When they looked up at the end, they barely could make out the lights.

“It was a steam room. It was just fog,” Kenny Clark said. “You walk outside, steam is coming off your head, off your whole body. Clothes are soaking wet. You could squeeze your clothes, and pounds of water are coming out.”

“It gives you a mental toughness that I don’t think people can ever break.”

Clark, a life-long football player, Clark nevertheless credited wrestling for turning him into one of the Bruins’ defensive cogs. The four-star recruit out of the Inland Empire won a CIF wrestling title as a senior and earned a ring bearing his name and two-loss record. In that match, he faced Los Alamitos High’s Alex Redmond — now UCLA’s starting right guard — in an epic, 2-1 win that lasted nearly half an hour (Redmond later evened the score with a 2-1 win at Masters).

This season, Clark has played in all five games off the bench, with the workload increasing each week. The 6-foot-2, 305-pounder looks every bit ready to start.

On more than one occasion, head coach Jim Mora has described Clark as “stout” — a boulder plugging up the trenches. UCLA defensive line coach Angus McClure agreed the 18-year-old’s wrestling background has played a major role in his development.

“Without a doubt,” McClure said. “The techniques I teach, especially with nose guards having their weight on their in-step, being flat-footed, playing with great leverage — he learned a lot of that in wrestling.

“When I was recruiting him, that was the most impressive thing. Going out and watching him wrestle. Just to see how powerful he was and how low he could be and stay flat-footed.”

His teammates see the background easily. During one-on-one run blocking drills Wednesday, Clark rushed into a guard and brought him down to his knees. Senior defensive end Keenan Graham, once a middle-school wrestler, said the moment looked just like two guys working on the mat.

Even starting tackle Seali’i Epenesa was impressed — and mystified.

“I do see that sometimes when he takes on double teams,” the senior said of Clark. “You’ll see him doing some moves that I don’t do, that I don’t see anybody else do.

“I don’t even know what you’d call it. He dips his shoulder and stuff. It’s all momentum.”

The statline isn’t sexy — five tackles, one for loss — but nose tackles rarely rack up flashy numbers. It’s a working-man’s position: show up and grind it out.

Clark, just a few months removed from facing a potential redshirt year, is one of the reasons Mora has tried to cap defensive linemen at 50 snaps per game. Freshman ends Eddie Vanderdoes and Kylie Fitts also have earned playing time and injected youth into a unit anchored by senior Cassius Marsh.

Why overuse his players when he has so much first-year talent?

In UCLA’s 37-10 win over Cal, Clark played more than 30 reps. With Stanford’s bruising offensive line looming Saturday, he easily could be in line for more.

Clark, asked what he wants out of his career at UCLA, talks about wanting to be a playmaker. Wrestling has taught him to constantly be in attack mode, something that has translated to his play at nose guard.

But he also stressed his desire to be a “technician” and learn the intricacies of his position. He wants to know opposing centers inside and out and learn guards’ stances.

McClure thinks the work is paying off. He already has seen enough from Clark that he may start moving the freshman into different spots on the line.

“He’s at that point now where he’s starting to blossom,” the coach said. “You’re starting to see some of his versatility.”

Jack Wang covers the Chargers, the latest NFL team to relocate to Los Angeles. He previously covered the Rams, and also spent four years on the UCLA beat, a strange period in which the Bruins' football program often outpaced their basketball team. He is a proud graduate of UC Berkeley, where he spent most of his time in The Daily Californian offices in Eshleman Hall — a building that did not become earthquake-safe until after his time on campus.

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